This information is probably worth what you paid for it. I spent the day finishing up the assembly and building a side table. I ended up shifting the rail since I have a sliding table. I have about 33” of rip capacity. This is not my 1st Grizzly tool. I own a G0513X2 band saw and a 18/36 sander(purchased used).I am basing most of my comparisons to my 1970 Unisaw which I completely tore down and restored.
Shipping damage – None. I picked it up in Bellingham. I have had a bandsaw (in a pretty flimsy crate) and an 8” jointer delivered in the past without any issues. The packing seemed reasonable enough. It had a wooden pallet on the bottom, moulded Styrofoam over the top of the table with a heavy cardboard box surrounding the saw. There were plastic straps holding the box on and the table saw was bolted to the pallet. I know the packing is not as heavy duty as what the zip code saws that come with the steel frame and my G0453Z planer came on a pallet encased with plywood. Ram a forklift fork into either and you will have damage. They make it 8000 miles to the states undamaged in the current package and UPS, FedEx, etc manages to mangle it up in less than 250 miles. Everything in the boxes were well packed.
Table flatness – Less than .0035” in any direction. Measured with a Lee Valley 36” straight edge and a piece of paper. The paper measured with my caliper anywhere from .0025” to .0035”. I could not get the paper under the straight edge in the few places I could see light. I bet companies really hate the fact that majority of hobbiest have all of these precision measuring tools. None of the tolerances ever seem to be specified. With the guesstimated flatness tolerance of .015”, I think I am good to go. The Right extension wing(left not installed due to sliding table) bolted up with no problems. I few small taps with a rubber mallet had it flush.I never had to shim it
Alignment – I think everybody should check the alignment and I don’t expect it to be less than .001” out of the factory. I ended up aligning mine because I thought it was out. Come to find out, the blade was not tight. It could have been aligned right from the factory. I will never know. It was easily aligned to .001 at 90 degrees. I checked it at 45 degrees and it is within .001” also. I checked the other miter slot at 90 degrees and it is also within .001. Sweet. The 90 degree tilt stop was really, really close. I adjusted it a hair to make myself feel better.
Fit and finish – I never owned a the Unisaw or a PM2000 but I looked them over several times in the store. The grind on the tableof the Grizzly is just as good as either one of those saws. I looked for chipped or scratched paint/ power coat and couldn’t find any.
Fence – I am no stranger to the Shop Fox Classic. I had one on my Unisaw. It is built like a tank. The magnified cursor still sucks. I made a replacement out of Aluminum and ¼” Plexiglas for the old one and kept it an put it on this one once I find it. The face has about .005” waviness along it’s length. My old ones wore after a while. I might replace with plywood and Formica in the future.
Dust Collection – Similar setup to the new Unisaw where there is an angled floor pan and the dust port sucks from the floor pan and the hose to the shroud. The shround bu itself is pretty good. Without the DC turned on I got very dusty. I ripped a board with a 1.5hp Jet DC connceted to the saw and an Excalibur overhead guard and it got all of the dust.
Riving knife – I have never used one. I had a Biesemeyer Snap in splitter in my Unisaw. It was easy to remove. The riving knife never has to be removed, but if it does, it is removed in a couple of seconds with the flip of a lever. It It was already aligned correctly out of the box.
Trunion – The tilt mechanism seems to be the same as the older version and similar to the old Unisaw. The blade elevation is where all the new stuff has happened . There is an adjustable gib to take out any slack from wear. All of the parts appear to be hefty enough to perform the task. Everything moves smooth and easy. They move so smoothly I can grap the wheel and spin it and it will make a couple of revolutions before it stops
Manual – 94 page spiral bound book all in English!!!!! Nowhere are the instructions repeated in Spanish, French, or German. I can’t say I read the whole thing. I tend to skim manuals a lot. I did flip through all of the pages. What I did read it seems to be pretty good and includes info on how to change the Arbor bearings.
Wrenches – I have heard some grumbling over how flimsy they are. They are 5/32” thick. My old Unisaw one was a little thicker but I am not sure how much. I haven’t had to crank on mine so I am not sure how they will hold up.
Motor – Spec says 30 amp circuit but comes with a 6-15 plug. It works fine on my 20A circuit running with my 1.5hp DC. Motor is stamped 14 amps. It is very smooth. My Unisaw would shudder on startup and shutdown.
Likes:
1) Large hand wheels. Did I say how much I love the large hand wheels? They are ginormous. Everything turns smoothly and locks down tight.
2) Access door on the right hand side of saw. Between this and the motor cover I find it very easy to get an anything that need lubricated.
3)Price tag. It cost me about $100 to switch from my 1970 Unisaw to the G1023RL. I got better Dust collection, smooth table, and a riving knife. This saw is a bargain
4)Tilt indicator. The clear plastic with a red line appears to be more accurate than the old round nosed metal pointer on my Unisaw.
5) Large paddle off switch.
6) the table top finish is awesome.
7) riving knife is very convenient.
8)Dust collection is much improved over my Unisaw.
9)Last but not least, Grizzly customer service.
Dislikes:
1) Standard throat plate warped and bowed pretty bad. Grizzly is sending out another once they come in around Oct 4. The Dado plate was fine. I will be make a ZCI anyway.
2) Shop Fox Classic magnified cursor. Replace with a home made one and life is much better.
3) Miter gage – Does anyone even use stock miter gages any more? I guess this one is not bad. It has an adjustable miter bar. It looks functional. It is pretty heavy and made out of cast iron. I don’t care for the plastic handle because it looks cheap. I guess that is kind of weird since my Incra has a plastic handle. The miter gage on the hybrid and one of the contractor saw looks much bigger and has a chrome handle. I played with it up in the showroom. You would think the cabinet saw would have the beefier miter gage. I haven’t used it and probably won’t. I can imagine the bottom of the head of the cast iron might scratch the pretty polished table so on the wall it goes. I have an Incra 1000SE and a JessEm Mast-R-Slide that will replace it..
4) Not really but I got a chuckle out of this one. There are boxes in the bottom of the saw when shipped. The motor is then rotated at a 45 degree angle and locked in place by a thick brace connected to the motor and the table thus pinning the boxes under the motor. Where do you think the handwheel is for the blade tilt is? That’s right, pinned in the box under the motor. Luckly the hand wheel was on the motor opening side of the box and I was able to pull it out of the side of the box once it was cut open the end. I can just see them laughing at the factory as they were putting it in there. I had a good laugh as well.
All in all I am VERY happy with the upgrade from my old Unisaw. The left tilt is a little weird to me since I always used a right tilt. With the blade angled it is very close to the miter gage. I don’t tilt the blade that much anyway. I do like adjusting the blade tilt with my right hand since I am right handed. It is nice to be able to make a cabinet under the side table and not have to worry about the motor cover. The current price is outstanding. If it holds up as well as the old 1023s then this is going to be a great saw. So here are some picures for the visual people. I even ran it without the DC so you could tell I used it. I still need to put a piece of plywood under the right table and build a cabinet.
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